William Jones’ magnificent life is a wolf-whistle to an era that is now forgotten but, as we trudge our way through the forests of global capitalism, his life’s themes and resonances may be all too real.

The earth and its climatological paraphernalia, like an impatient landlord, may no longer offer up time and space to construct life-events, far less allow us the freedom to anxiously marvel at the interiority of our thoughts and beliefs.

It is important to note the difference: it is not that company is claiming ownership of a particular recording by a particular artist. It is instead claiming ownership on the composition itself that has come down over centuries.

This conceptual tool - to divide the world into twos - was thus born out of me, like some old memory that I had forgotten about. Where, my grandmother asked me once, do the spider's strings come from? Not even a spider can tell, she had assured me.

Generation after generation of Indians and Indophiles come together, argue, support, critique and arrive at historically contingent conclusions about the Gita. Out of the fires of this argument emerges the tradition where the Gita becomes a site for rediscovery, a geography to locate oneself amidst the erosion of modern life.

One of the consequences of such a view of truth induced by validity and credibility is that it allows us to question what is mass marketed as 'truth' itself by looking into how credibility about statements is produced.